RAPID: Environmental impacts of Cyclone Pam on Vanuatu: implications for long-term cyclone and tsunami records for the South Pacific

快速：来自瓦努阿图的气旋 PAM 的沉积记录：对南太平洋长期气旋和海啸记录的影响该提案是沉积地质学和古生物学计划/EAR 与东亚和太平洋计划/OISE/IIA 之间的共同资助工作。该项目的非技术解释：登陆热带气旋（热带气旋）对南太平洋海岸线造成经济和环境危害，然而，人们对其长期变化知之甚少。 2015 年 3 月 6 日，影响南太平洋最强烈的风暴之一 TC Pam 以 5 级气旋登陆瓦努阿图，该地区热带气旋灾害的不确定性得到了悲剧性的凸显。 过去的气旋记录是从它们留下的沉积物中发展而来的，通过扩大事件的年龄范围以包括百年和千年的时间尺度，提高了我们对过程和频率的理解。 然而，利用沉积物重建过去风暴的可靠记录的主要障碍之一是，登陆TC沉积的沉积物常常会与海啸沉积的沉积物混淆。 PI 将通过比较 TC Pam 和 2009 年南太平洋海啸的影响和相关沉积物来解决这一障碍。 这项研究是改进对易受两种形式海洋淹没影响的海岸线灾害风险评估的重要一步。该项目的技术描述：PI 开发了一个独特的机会来比较已知风暴（2015 年瓦努阿图的 TC Pam）和海啸（2009 年南太平洋海啸）在事件记录不完整且不完整的地区的影响。 通过比较 TC Pam 和 2009 年南太平洋海啸（团队成员之前记录的）的影响，可以评估两个震级相似但成因不同的极端事件。 为了进行这种比较，PI 将迅速派遣一个四人调查小组前往受到影响最大的岛屿（瓦努阿图的埃法特岛和塔纳岛）。 他们将收集气旋风暴潮的重要物理特征（例如浪涌高度、淹没距离）及其相关沉积物（例如岩性、厚度、空间范围）。 通过详细的地层学、粒度和微古生物学（有孔虫分类学和埋藏学）分析，PI 旨在确定这些事件所造成的沉积物的差异，并利用这些差异来改进对受这两种形式的海洋淹没影响的海岸线的危害评估。

RAPID: SEDIMENTARY RECORD OF CYCLONE PAM FROM VANUATU: IMPLICATIONS FOR LONG-TERM CYCLONE AND TSUNAMI RECORDS FOR THE SOUTH PACIFICThis proposal is a co-funding effort between the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program/EAR and the East Asia and Pacific Program/OISE/IIA.Nontechnical explanation of the project:Land-falling tropical cyclones (TCs) pose an economic and environmental hazard to coastlines of the South Pacific, however, little is known about their long-term variability. The uncertainty surrounding TC hazards in this region was tragically underscored on 6 March 2015 when TC Pam, one of the most intense storms to impact the South Pacific, made landfall on Vanuatu as a Category 5 cyclone. Records of past cyclones, developed from the sedimentary deposits they leave behind, improve our understanding of processes and frequency by expanding the age range of events to include centennial and millennial timescales. However, one of the major obstacles associated with using sedimentary deposits to reconstruct reliable records of past storms is that sediments deposited by land-falling TCs can often be confused with those deposited by tsunamis. PIs will address this obstacle by comparing the impact and associated sedimentary deposits of TC Pam and the 2009 South Pacific tsunami. This study is an important step towards improving the assessment of hazard risk for coastlines that are vulnerable to both forms of marine inundation.Technical description of the project:PIs developed a unique opportunity to compare the impacts of a known storm (TC Pam on Vanuatu in 2015) and tsunami (South Pacific tsunami in 2009) in a region where the event record is fragmentary and incomplete. A comparison of the impact of TC Pam and the 2009 South Pacific tsunami (previously documented by members of the team) enables an assessment of two extreme events of similar magnitude, but different genesis. To carry out this comparison PIs will rapidly dispatch a four-person survey team to the islands that sustained the greatest impact (Efate and Tanna in Vanuatu). They will collect vital physical characteristics of the cyclone?s storm surge (e.g., surge height, inundation distance) and its associated sedimentary deposits (e.g., lithology, thickness, spatial extent). Through detailed stratigraphic, grain size, and micropaleontological (foraminiferal taxonomy and taphonomy) analyses PIs aim to identify differences in the sedimentary deposits emplaced by these events and that these differences can be used to improve hazard assessment for coastlines impacted by both forms of marine inundation.